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DiMeo crime family
The DiMeo crime family, also known as the Soprano crime family, is an American Mafia family based in New Jersey. The family was founded in the 1950s by Ercoli DiMeo, and it made North Jersey and Miami its bases. By the 2000s, the family had around 60 made men (6 crews of around 10 made men each) and over 200 associates, making it a powerful family in the state. The family mostly operated around Newark during its early years, and it developed longstanding ties with the Five Families of New York City; soon, it would become one of the most powerful Mafia families on the East Coast. In 2000, Tony Soprano emerged as its boss after a power struggle with his uncle, Junior Soprano, and the family would win a mob war with the Lupertazzi crime family after overcoming many internal divisions. History The DiMeo family was founded by Ercoli DiMeo in the Italian-American enclave of Newark, New Jersey during the 1950s. The DiMeo family operated in North Jersey at its foundation, and it grew into a large family with several ten-member crews. In 1983, many family members and associates were arrested, and the death of respected capo Johnny Soprano in 1986 led to his son Tony Soprano becoming the new capo. Soprano had the loyalty of Salvatore Bonpensiero, Paulie Gualtieri, and Silvio Dante, who became his lieutenants. After Ercoli DiMeo was sentenced to life in prison in 1995, Jackie Aprile Sr. became the acting boss of the family, disappointing the senior family member Junior Soprano. Aprile fell ill with stomach cancer in 1998, leading to Tony Soprano becoming the new acting boss, again to Junior's displeasure. The two of them would nearly go to war, but they made peace, with Junior becoming boss. However, an assassination attempt on Tony led to Tony Soprano killing Junior's crew members Chucky Signore, Mikey Palmice, and (after Junior's imprisonment) Philly Parisi. Tony Soprano took over virtually all of Junior Soprano's businesses, and he became the new boss of the family, with Silvio Dante serving as his consigliere. Junior was kept on as the de jure boss to fool the FBI, and he became an adviser to his nephew, later warning him of Richie Aprile's plot against him. In 2000, Soprano was arrested for the extortion of Davey Scatino (after an indictment against him for the murder of Matthew Bevilacqua was thrown out due to the witness recanting his testimony). In 2002, Junior Soprano's trial was tried again, meaning that he would be kept under house arrest; Bobby Baccalieri became the acting capo of Junior's crew. Richie Aprile came to challenge Soprano by selling cocaine on his garbage routes and by disobeying his orders, but Aprile was killed in an unrelated domestic dispute, coincidentally with Tony's sister Janice. Soprano faced another threat when Cestone died of a heart attack, leading to Ralph Cifaretto becoming the new captain of his crew. Cifaretto was forced to have Jackie Aprile Jr. killed for disrupting one of his underlings' poker games, wiping out the powerful Aprile clan. Soprano personally killed Cifaretto in a fit of rage after Cifaretto cruelly killed Soprano's prize racehorse in a stable fire in exchange for insurance money, and Vito Spatafore took over Cifaretto's crew. Soprano made his nephew Christopher Moltisanti his heir after Moltisanti gave up his own fiancee Adriana La Cerva for execution when it was discovered that she was an FBI informant, making amends for his past heroin usage. Moltisanti became captain of Gualtieri's crew after Gualtieri became underboss under Soprano. In 2002, the allied Lupertazzi crime family was pushed to the brink of war with the DiMeo family over the Esplanade construction site in Newark, with disputes over shares of the money causing a crisis. Johnny Sacrimoni and Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. blamed each other for the rival, and each of them asked Soprano to whack the other one to end the conflict. However, the two families were able to work out a deal. In 2004, the death of Lupertazzi and the release of Phil Leotardo, Angelo Garepe, Michele La Manna, and Tony Blundetto from prison led to renewed conflict. Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. and Leotardo went to war over control of the Lupertazzi family, and Soprano struggled with the insubordination of La Manna and Blundetto. Blundetto's murder of Lupertazzi associate Joey Peeps on the orders of Lupertazzi capo Rusty Millio and consigliere Angelo Garepe led to Leotardo having Garepe killed. Blundetto then went after Leotardo in revenge, killing his brother Billy Leotardo in an unsanctioned hit. Faced with threats of war and torture from Sacrimoni and Leotardo plus unease in his own family, Soprano was forced to kill Blundetto himself. Sacrimoni's arrest by the FBI led to Leotardo, still sour about the Sopranos' actions against his family, becoming acting boss of the Lupertazzis. The accidental shooting of Tony Soprano by a delirious Junior Soprano led to a media frenzy, and Junior claimed that Tony had shot himself due to his mental issues. Tony Soprano decided to send Junior to a mental facility rather than harm him, but Tony was still incapacitated; Silvio Dante took over as acting boss. Dante was unable to handle the pressure of being boss, and he was also hospitalized from an asthma attack. Tony Soprano woke from his coma, and Sacrimoni enlisted Soprano's help in whacking his insubordinate capo, Rusty Millio. Soprano brought in two men from Naples to whack Millio and his soldier Eddie Pietro in the driveway of Millio's home, but Sacrimoni's guilty plea in his RICO trial led to Leotardo becoming the new acting boss of the Lupertazzi family. More issues ensued when Vito Spatafore was revealed to be a homosexual, leading to a fearful Spatafore fleeing to New Hampshire as Carlo Gervasi took over his construction business. Later, Spatafore approached Soprano about opening a prostitution racket in Atlantic City, but Soprano was pressured by Leotardo to whack Spatafore for "disgracing" the Mafia with his homosexuality. Before Soprano could act, Leotardo had Dominic Gamiello and Gerry Torciano beat Spatafore to death in his hotel room. Soprano felt that New York was doing whatever it wanted, so he decided to financially hurt the Lupertazzis in revenge. He wanted to avoid war, which would be costly for both families, but Gamiello's murder by Gervasi and Dante at Satriale's (in revenge for Gamiello's implication that Gervasi was gay) led to war. Soprano had Benny Fazio blow up Leotardo's wire room in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and Carmine Lupertazzi, Jr. decided to hold a sitdown between the families. Phil Leotardo stormed out of the meeting after Lupertazzi mentioned the killing of Billy Leotardo, and, after a meeting with Gerry Torciano, Albie Cianflone, and Butch DeConcini, Leotardo decided to whack several high-ranking Soprano leaders. When Soprano curb-stomped one of DeConcini's men for threatening Tony's daughter Meadow, war seemed inevitable. In 2007, war broke out between the two families after Gervasi approached Silvio Dante to join in on a coup against Soprano; Dante garrotted Gervasi to death at his home. The Soprano hit attempt on Leotardo failed, as the Italian hitmen succeeded only in killing Leotardo's Ukrainian mistress and her father at their home, believing that the father was Leotardo. The hits on the Sopranos by the Lupertazzis had more finesse, however, with Bobby Baccalieri being killed at a model train store. Silvio Dante was badly wounded in an ambush while talking with Patsy Parisi outside of the Bada Bing strip club, and he entered a comatose state. Soprano lived in hiding until he could arrange for a sit-down with DeConcini and Cianflone. DeConcini agreed that Leotardo's starting of the war was a bad idea, and that New York would not retaliate if he were to be killed. In exchange for Moltisanti's giving-up of two suspected al-Qaeda sleeper cell members to the FBI, the FBI told Soprano that Leotardo had been making phone calls from an Oyster Bay gas station. Leotardo was shot dead in front of his wife and grandchildren as he pumped gas at a Raceway gas station, and the driverless SUV ran over his head after he fell. This ended the war, and Tony Soprano remained the boss of a weakened Soprano family, which had lost many of its leaders (including Moltisanti, who Soprano strangled after a car crash). Category:Mafia families Category:Gangs